Life form activists sometimes note that it's easier to get people interested in protecting animals that have personalities, or that are easy to imagine having human persoanlities--mammals not worms.

But I think a lot of that is training. Little kids are fascinated by goo that includes many small life forms, by turning over the rock and seeing what scurries and what wiggles in place.

At least some kids like little, non-affable life when they are themselves relatively little. It's a wise investment in the future not to train them out of that feeling of affection and fascination. Hold those yucks. "What are you noticing, scientist?"

If their liking for tiny is interrupted, maybe they'll grow up to found the Little Critters Club that loves and protects life's teeming foundations.